Guess We're Dating
by Bookworm1063
Summary: Jay has been in love with Carlos since forever. When Carlos kisses Jay at a club, a misunderstanding threatens to ruin everything.


"We're going out."

Jay looked up from his plate of roast chicken and cornbread, frowning across the table at Mal. "Sorry?"

"We're going out," Mal insisted. "The four of us, just like old times. Plus Ben. And Uma. And her idiot boyfriends. You know, to _celebrate._"

"What are we celebrating?" Carlos dropped into his chair at the polished wood table, reaching for the salad bowl.

"This idiot coming home from his world tour with Gil."

"Seriously, Mal, I'm good. Thanks, though." Jay went back to his food.

"I wasn't asking."

o-o-o-o-o

Jay really hadn't been planning on going along with Mal's scheme, until he found out that it wasn't really Mal's scheme at all; it was Evie's. Which is how he found himself squeezed into a booth between two of his best friends, with Carlos on his left, either entirely too close or not nearly close enough, and Evie on his right, because after Carlos, she was the one person Jay could never say no to.

Jay knew he was a little drunk, but he didn't mind too much. It was just enough to relax him, and he figured he'd earned that, after the week he'd had, looking into colleges with decent tourney scholarships. Uma, Harry, and Gil were off dancing, and Mal and Ben were on the other side of their table, Mal's head resting against Ben's shoulder, Ben leaning down to kiss her every once and a while.

He was also making a point to look anywhere that wasn't to his immediate left, since Carlos had chosen tonight to wear his eyeliner.

"I wanna dance," Carlos announced after a while, bouncing in his seat as the music picked up. It was instinct for Jay to look out for the younger boy; he knew Carlos was probably actually drunk, not just on the way there, given how long they'd all been sitting in the booth. Jay subtly shifted the still half-full glass in front of Carlos away from him.

Ben and Mal were in the middle of a full-on make-out session now, and Evie just leaned back in her seat, pulled out her phone (she was still disgustingly sober) and said, "Have fun, boys."

"Oh, no way," Jay said immediately, looking frantically around the crowded club for an escape. "I don't dance."

But Carlos pouted and gave Jay the big brown puppy-dog eyeliner eyes, so really, Jay didn't have a choice.

He followed his best friend onto the dance floor, watching the other boy twirl in place and laugh up at the ceiling. Jay wasn't blushing. And he certainly wasn't thinking about what it would be like to kiss Carlos here, or even just to take his hand and really dance with him. Because Jay didn't dance, and he didn't catch feelings. No fucking way. He was still telling himself that, even though that particular ship had sailed long ago.

"Come on, Jay," Carlos said, sliding back through the crowd to press himself against Jay's side, twisting their fingers together and tugging him out onto the dance floor. There was barely an inch of space between any two people out there, and Jay couldn't make out faces, just shoulders bumping into his and someone stepping on his toes. But this was still _Auradon_\- Ben and Mal were the most indecent thing in the room, and they were literally just making out. This was no Isle party, that was for sure, and Jay kind of preferred it this way.

"Dance with me," Carlos said, twining his arms around Jay's neck, swaying on the spot. Up close, Jay noticed that the hectic red spots that normally appeared on Carlos' face when he was this drunk were absent.

He wasn't given much chance to think about it, because Carlos was leaning even closer to whisper in his ear, "I really like you, you know."

Jay's heart stopped, then started again, double-time.

He didn't have time to convince himself that Carlos definitely meant that platonically (because how else could he mean it?) before Carlos was kissing him, and Jay decided that thinking wasn't important.

Jay knew that Evie, at least, was probably still watching from the booth, and who knew how many others, but he didn't care. All that mattered was Carlos, Carlos' arms around his neck, Carlos' body pressed against his, Carlos' lips, warm and soft and slightly chapped, exactly like Jay had always imagined. The fact that Carlos was almost definitely drunk right now, and Jay had promised to protect him.

It was the last thing he wanted to do, but Jay gently pulled himself out of Carlos' embrace, disentangling the other boy's arms from around his neck. Carlos looked up at him, and Jay noticed that the red spots had made their appearance, covering the whole of his face instead of just his cheekbones. Weird.

"C?" Jay asked. "You okay?"

"I- yeah. I'm fine," Carlos said. "Um. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Jay forced himself to smile, ignoring the disappointed twisting in the pit of his stomach. "Let's get you some water or something."

"I'm good." Carlos turned away from Jay, vanishing into the crowd and reappearing at their booth, leaning over to speak to Evie.

A tipsy prince was twirling next to him with a pretty blond princess, and the girl accidentally slammed into Jay. Only a lifetime on the Isle kept him on his feet, but when he looked up again, Carlos and Evie were gone, and Mal had disentangled herself from Ben and was making her way over to Jay.

"Come on," she said, grabbing his arm and yanking him off through the crowds. "We need to talk."

o-o-o-o-o

Mal didn't let go of Jay's arm until they were three blocks away. She stopped them on a bridge, one with benches set next to the railings so you could sit and look out at the river. You couldn't see the ocean from here, or the Isle. Just Auradon. Jay followed Mal over to one of the benches overlooking the city and sat down.

Jay waited, but Mal didn't say anything. Just stared off into the distance, toward where the Isle would be if they could see it. Then she said, "So. Carlos, huh."

"It's not like that."

Mal shot him a glare out of the corners of her eyes, and Jay considered himself lucky that they weren't glowing yet. "The fact that you feel the need to say it isn't like that tells me that it is, in fact, exactly like that."

Jay huffed out a breath and ran a hand through his hair, reaching into his pocket for an elastic and tying it out of his face. The wind was starting to pick up, whipping off the water. An empty takeout bag skittered past their bench and fetched up against Snow White's statue.

Jay was still staring at it as he said, "It's not like that for him."

Mal snorted. "What happened tonight says otherwise."

Jay opened his mouth, realized he didn't have a response to that, and closed it again. They sat in silence for a minute, until Jay said, "He was drunk."

Mal started, stared at Jay incredulously, then burst into hysterical laughter.

"This is why Evie handles feelings! Stop laughing. It's not funny," Jay snapped, and Mal shut up, the corners of her lips turning downward in a frown.

"Well, yeah, he was drunk," Mal said slowly. "But he wasn't _that _drunk. If you hadn't been so purposely looking anywhere else, you'd have noticed, too."

"I was not-" Jay began, but Mal cut him off.

"Please, Jay, don't lie to me. It's a waste of my time and your breath."

Jay huffed and slumped back against the cold metal back of the bench.

"You could have told me, you know," Mal said softly. "That you liked him." She wasn't looking at Jay; she was watching the river. Neither Mal nor Jay was particularly good at this sort of thing.

"Mal, if I'd told you back on the Isle, or even right after we came to Auradon, you'd have given me hell for it. Falling in love isn't something villains are supposed to do."

"We're not villains," Mal murmured.

"We were."

Mal didn't say anything, so Jay asked, "Now what?"

"Evil's sake," Mal swore. "I know you aren't this dumb. Even I get it. Carlos likes you. Why, I'll never know, he could do a million times better, but moving on. He didn't kiss you because he was drunk, he kissed you because he wanted to, and now he thinks you didn't want to."

"I…" Jay ran his hand through his hair in bewilderment. "That… oh."

"Yeah," Mal said. "Oh."

Jay shook his head again. "Carlos likes me? You're serious? How did you know?"

"I wasn't sure until tonight," Mal said. "But I had a feeling, after you left, and he broke up with Jane out of the blue."

Jay frowned, momentarily distracted. "I didn't know they'd broken up."

"Is that really what you're choosing to focus on?"

"No. I need to…" Jay jumped to his feet, looking around wildly. "I need to fix this."

Mal had her elbow propped up on the back of the bench, and she raised one hand in a lazy wave. "Yes, you do. Good luck."

Jay took off down the bridge, and wasted no time returning to the Beast's castle.

o-o-o-o-o

Carlos wasn't in his room, and Jay didn't bother checking anywhere else. He knocked on Evie's door instead.

"Hey," he said. "Is C with you?"

"No," Evie said. She'd clearly been in the middle of getting ready for bed; her hair was tied back in a tight braid, and she had a blue eye mask perched on her forehead.

Jay nodded. "Where's the library?"

"Down the hall to the left, second right, the big oak doors just past the commemorative bust of Ben's grandfather," Evie said. "What are you-"

"Thanks, E. See you tomorrow!" Jay sprinted down the hall. Evie stared after him for a moment, smiling to herself, before stepping back into her room and closing the door.

o-o-o-o-o

The library at Beast's castle was massive, and when Jay slipped in past the oak doors Evie had mentioned, he froze for a moment and stared in awe.

The doors opened onto a balcony that ran around the edge of the circular room. Directly in front of Jay, a grand staircase led down to the main floor. Bookshelves, packed with books of all shapes, sizes, and colors, covered every wall and filled almost every empty space on the floor. Only a small area in the middle was clear, with a few tables and chairs.

Jay found Carlos there, head bent over a book the size of his arm. When Jay cleared his throat, Carlos looked up, but not at Jay.

"Hi."

"Hey, Jay." Carlos still didn't turn around. Jay just wanted him to _look at him_, but Carlos wouldn't. "Everything okay?"

"Not really."

At that, Carlos did turn around, eyes wide and worried. "Did something happen?" Then he blushed. "I mean… something else?"

"Nah. I just thought we should… you know… talk." Jay perched himself on the edge of Carlos' table, the picture of ease.

"I'm sorry," Carlos said immediately. "Can we please not talk about it? It doesn't matter."

Jay wanted to hit something. Feelings weren't his strong point; this was the sort of thing best left to Evie. But Jay didn't think even Evie could fix this for him.

The problem was, he had no idea what to say.

Jay wasn't good with words, wasn't good with feelings, had no idea how to fix this. Should he tell Carlos everything? How he'd been in love with him since that day on the isle, when Carlos had faced off against Maleficent's gargoyles and walked away victorious? Or just say that he had, in fact, wanted Carlos to kiss him, had been waiting for Carlos to kiss him for years now… no. Too much.

Jay wasn't good with words. So he didn't use them.

He reached out and placed his hand against the side of Carlos' face. Carlos tensed in surprise, but didn't tell him to stop. So Jay leaned in, as slowly as he could stand, giving Carlos every opportunity to back away. When he didn't, Jay closed the last of the space between him and pressed his lips to the other boy's mouth.

Carlos kissed him back immediately, and Jay couldn't help but smile against Carlos' lips, feeling the smaller boy twist his arms around the back of Jay's neck as Jay placed his free hand, the one not still cupping Carlos' cheek, against his waist. Jay kissed Carlos until he was gasping for air, and pulled away just enough to breath, resting his forehead against the smaller boy's.

"It matters," he whispered, and Carlos smiled.

o-o-o-o-o

When Jay woke up the next morning, he was grinning so widely, it felt like his face had split open. He even caught himself humming as he grabbed a clean pair of pants and yesterday's shirt from the floor and ducked into the bathroom to shower.

Mal and Evie were already in the dining room when he sat down, huddled over plates of food and stacks of paper and binders. Jay glanced over at them curiously.

"Wedding planning?"

Mal nodded and turned away from Evie to stuff her face with strawberries. "It's too early for this, E. Besides, I want to hear how last night went."

Evie gasped and dropped the binder she'd been holding. Loose papers scattered across the polished wooden floor, but she didn't seem to notice. "Jay? Did you talk to Carlos?"

"I mean- yeah. I guess."

Evie opened her mouth to say something else, but she was interrupted by Carlos, squeezing in through the gap between the dining room doors and smiling when he saw his friends there. "Good morning." He made his way over to the table, leaning down to kiss the top of Jay's head as he passed and grabbing a plate of waffles before sitting down.

Evie's eyes were wide and shining; Mal was squinting suspiciously.

"So are you guys dating, then?" Mal stabbed another strawberry with her fork.

Jay looked at Carlos. Carlos looked at Jay.

"Are we dating?" Carlos asked uncertainly.

Jay grinned. "Guess so."

Carlos smiled and intertwined his fingers with Jay's under the table, glancing over at Mal. "Yeah."


End file.
